Jacob Marley is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. Marley has been dead for seven years, and was a former business partner of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, the novella's protagonist. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth entwined by heavy chains and money boxes forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has a single chance of redemption to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits, in the hope that he will mend his ways; otherwise, he will be cursed to carry much heavier chains of his own.
Ebenezer Scrooge encounters the ghost of Jacob Marley in Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol – illustration by John Leech (1843)
Marley appears to Scrooge – illustration by Fred Barnard (1878).
Marley's Ghost - illustration by Arthur Rackham (1915).
Chained costume for Marley's Ghost from The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) – displayed at the Charles Dickens Museum, London.
A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. In the process, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
First edition cover (1843)
"Marley's Ghost", original illustration by John Leech from the 1843 edition
Scrooge and Bob Cratchit celebrate Christmas in an illustration from stave five of the original edition, 1843.
Dickens at the blacking warehouse, as envisioned by Fred Barnard